


departure & its side-effects: an extended study

by Rustyanklebraclet



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Gen, M/M, Minor Angst, Post-Canon, Post-Episode: s05e05 Geothermal Escapism, pretty heavily implied slash but could be read as gen if thats your preferred lens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29706849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rustyanklebraclet/pseuds/Rustyanklebraclet
Summary: the loss of a best friend- a story in five parts
Relationships: Abed Nadir & Britta Perry, Abed Nadir & Jeff Winger, Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Shirley Bennett & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	departure & its side-effects: an extended study

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this after waking up drenched in sweat at five in the morning, typing out like four different fic ideas (this being one of them) in my phone memo, and then going back to sleep until well after two pm
> 
> timeline jumps around a bit on this one and is kinda vague, but it all takes place post-5.05 (as the tag says)
> 
> tw for very breif mentions of alcoholism + jeff's treatment of abed in s6, but its generally pretty light

Annie comes in late. She had agreed to pick up Michelle's shift for her, and then to close for Ken, even though she knew it meant she’d miss the bus. So she had to walk to the further stop up the road to catch the night line, and _that_ bus had broken down almost half a mile away from the apartment, and she had to walk even more, despite being exhausted, and-

The point is, it's almost an hour after she was supposed to be home. She’s careful to be as quiet as she can manage- Abed’s a lighter sleeper than he used to be, and there are getting to be more and more nights where she knows he doesn’t sleep at all, despite what he tells her.

She realizes, quickly, though, that he’s sitting in his armchair, tv casting a pale glow on him in the otherwise dark apartment.

“Hi, Abed,” she says, pulling her shoes off and setting them by the door.

“Hi,” he says, quietly, turning to face her. “You’re late.”

“Yeah, I know. I closed for Ken, and I had some problems with the buses.”

“I called you.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry. I think it’s-” she reaches for her phone in her pocket, and finds it won’t turn on. “-yeah. It’s dead.”

“It’s fine,” Abed says, looking back to the TV, and the way he says it makes her gut twist as she makes her way over to him.

The sound on the tv comes into focus as she approaches, and she recognizes the British accents and various beeps and wooshes as-

“Inspector spacetime?”

Abed nods, and she perches on the edge of his chair, sliding her bag off her shoulder and setting it on the floor next to it.

“I haven’t seen you watching this in a while. Not since-”

She cuts herself off abruptly, with a nervous glance toward Abed, who says nothing.

She looks closer and notices his eyes are shining, ever so slightly, as he looks down to his hands wringing together in his lap. She watches them nervously for a moment, before reaching forward, and taking one of them in her own.

A few seconds pass, and she feels him take a deep breath next to her.

She leans down to rest her head on his shoulder. Something blows up on the screen, and the inspector shakes his head, muttering something to himself that Annie doesn’t catch, but makes Abed laugh. More of a sharp exhale, really, but still.

* * *

“Are you busy?”

Jeff smiles, already reaching for the remote to click the TV off.

“Almost never.”

He meets Abed at the Denny’s near Greendale. He’s already sitting in a booth when Jeff comes in, and he waves him over.

They used to do this, sometimes, when Abed was still at Greendale and not living several states over. But he’s back for a few days, visiting his dad (as well as Britta and Jeff) while he’s between projects. Jeff has never been totally sure whether it’s some sort of homage, but if it is, Abed’s never let him know, so he’s left it alone.

Ignorance is bliss, as they say.

“What’s new with you?” Abed asks, sliding a menu over to him, as though Jeff is going to order anything more than a coffee.

“I started teaching two new classes, I yelled at Leonard and had to wear a jester’s cap around the school for a week according to some Greendale by-law, and, I’m, uh...” he pauses, counting on his fingers “seven and a half months sober.”

Abed smiles at him, warm and completely genuine. “That’s great, Jeff.”

He nods, head ducking slightly in embarrassment at the praise. “Yeah, uh, well. I’m trying. Speaking of which- have I told you how sorry I am for how I was that last year you were at Greendale lately?”

Abed shrugs.

“Well, I am.”

Another shrug.

“It’s alright,” Abed says, and then pauses, shaking his head. “Well- it’s not. But I understand.”

Jeff nods, and the waitress comes to take their order.

“What about you? What have you been doing?”

“I’ve been working on my next script, mostly. And I've been running more - the beach is only fifteen minutes from my apartment, I go on the boardwalk.”

He fiddles with a couple of sugar packets that he’s pulled out of a little container on the table, and Jeff is about to ask another question, when Abed cuts him off.

“Have you spoken to Troy much?”

“A bit. Britta talks to him more, though. Why?”

Jeff watches his fidgeting become more precise, the careful way he organizes the packets into a square and neutral look on his face giving Jeff serious deja vu of their days at Greendale.

“No reason,” Abed says, eventually. Jeff’s been around for long enough- he knows a man that wants a subject dropped immediately when he sees one.

“I saw your last movie- the pirate one? The main villain was totally based on Chang, right?”

Abed’s face lights up.

* * *

“I miss him.”

Britta turns around in surprise. Abed’s sitting at the bar, as he usually does on Thursdays, just a glass of water in front of him. She isn’t sure if he comes in for his sake or for hers. She’s never asked- she really doesn’t know which one she’d rather it is.

“Who?” she asks, but she’s pretty sure she knows the answer.

Abed tilts his head at her in that way when he knows she’s playing a game, and wants her to stop.

“Sorry. I do too.”

Abed nods, and she goes back to the glass she had been wiping down. 

Abed speaks, quietly, after a long moment. “What was he-”

He cuts himself off, shaking his head and tracing the pattern in the wood with his thumbnail.

“What is it?” Britta asks.

“I don’t want to overstep.”

“Since when has that ever stopped anyone in our group?”

Abed pauses. “What was it like, being with him?”

Britta may not have been the greatest psych student, even by Greendale's standards, but it wouldn’t take an idiot to take note of Abed's careful posture, his calm tone.

She thinks, for a few seconds, before she answers as honestly as she can. “I couldn’t tell you.”

Abed frowns. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t-” she sighs, shaking her head to collect her thoughts. “I don’t think he was ever really mine. There wasn’t much of a relationship to tell you about.”

Abed nods, and he stands up, pulling his jacket on. 

“I should go,” he says.

She watches him leave, not really sure how she would even begin to respond.

* * *

“Thanks so much for everything, Abed,” Shirley says.

Abed gives her a thumbs up, which she returns with a smile.

The girl from down the street was supposed to watch the kids while she went for lunch with her sister, but she’d called at the last minute to cancel after coming down with the flu. Shirley had called Annie, and ended up with Abed instead. Not her first choice, exactly, but it could be worse.

“I shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. The emergency numbers are on the counter, along with a spare key. They’ve already eaten, so you really just need to make sure they don’t kill themselves or each other."

“I think we’ll be alright.”

Shirley nods. “I know, I know. I just worry too much sometimes. But I trust you, I've seen you and- er, you around them before.”

Abed’s brow creases slightly. “You can say his name, Shirley. I’m not going to burst into flames.”

“I know, honey. It’s just...”

She trails off, and he gives her a searching look, like maybe he understands what she’s trying to say better than she does.

“I miss him too,” she says, eventually.

Abed ducks his head down, shuffling his feet against the tile. “I know you do. All of you. It’s just different, sometimes.”

Tentatively, Shirley reaches for his hand, taking it in her own. She rubs her thumb across the back of it, and he smiles, small and soft, but it’s enough.

* * *

Quickly suppressing the faint urge to vomit, Troy brings his knuckles to the apartment door and knocks twice. 

He scuffs the toe of his shoe against the hallway carpet, making a face when the sole catches and separates from the rest of the show, leaving his socked foot to stick out. He tried to fix it, but there had been wind, and now there’s a bottle of E-6000 somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific that he never bothered to replace.

“I can buy as many cheap running shoes as I want when I’m rich,” he’d told LeVar, who was either too nice or too used to Troy’s antics to point out that there was still a month and a half left until then.

Either way, he’s here now. He’d gotten Abed’s address from Annie, who was even more excited by the prospect of Troy surprising him than he could have hoped. The slight hiccup of a thunderstorm delaying their arrival in California by almost eight hours hadn’t been ideal, given that It’s nearly midnight. But he couldn’t stand the thought of waiting a whole night, so here he is.

Troy picks at a hangnail, his prior excitement fading the longer he waits, leaving behind nothing but a rock-solid ball of anxiety at the bottom of his stomach.

Maybe it had been a mistake, coming here. Especially in the middle of the night. What was he thinking?

He’s just about to turn and leave, go find a hotel or something and regroup, maybe give Abed a call the next morning, when he hears shuffling inside the apartment.

Troy’s heart stops when he hears the lock click, and the door swings open a moment later.

“Troy?” Abed asks, voice small and still slightly rough with sleep. His hair is sticking up, longer than it used to be, and he’s wearing a faded _Magneto_ t-shirt with flannel pyjama bottoms. Troy’s heart wrenches with how familiar the very sight of him is.

“Yeah, buddy. It’s me.”

Abed moves forward in a flash, throwing his arms around Troy’s neck, knocking the air out of Troy, who responds, eloquently, with a surprised _oomph_. But he catches up quickly, reciprocating the hug, taking the first deep breath he has in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on [Tumblr](https://readandwritesilver.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HOMINGPIGE0N) if you want
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is appreciated :)
> 
> Much love, Clover <3


End file.
